Get Creative, Use Metaphors In Your Mlm Training

Though this MLM article is not directly about recruiting or getting customers, it shares a vital tool that will help you build your business faster and in a more creative way.

When you are in the learning environment have you ever not fully understood a topic? It is a frustrating feeling. Then the speaker moves on, and it sometimes is difficult to catch up.

If you are a teacher, have you ever tried to teach or train some one, and felt that your student or trainee was not fully grasping the subject? Did you find they were struggling to understand you?

Be aware, pay attention, drop your ego, and ask questions about your teachings to find out if your message is getting across perfectly.

It is no new or profound fact that our minds work in mysterious ways.

Let’s play a fun game. Stop everything your doing, read the next sentence, then, close your eyes. Can you see or notice that there are images streaming through your mind? These images are always present to help explain to your mind all the things you hear or think about.

Your subconscious mind and thoughts are in charge of painting and creating these images, and true learning happens when we connect and involve our subconscious mind with our conscious mind.

Whether you are training groups or individuals for your MLM training, your goal is to not have your information just flow into one ear and out the other. We want them to grasp the teaching. We want them to be able to use it in their life, and ultimately we want them to be able to teach it to others.

This means that the trainees must fully understand what you are teaching.

Most speakers are boring, and do not engage different parts of their audience’s minds. One of the most valuable tools to engage people’s minds in your topic is to involve their subconscious mind into what you are teaching. One of the best ways to involve the subconscious mind is to use metaphors.

A metaphor is very influential in creating images in the subconscious mind which translate to higher understanding of the topic discussed.

Great metaphors are like making magic with words. Metaphors are fun, entertaining, and they are truly engaging. It is a very effective technique because it utilizes parts of the brain that would otherwise be busy creating non-related images, other thoughts, or anything else that is not in line with the teaching you may be giving. Realize that while we are alive, the brain does not ever stop working. Our goal as trainers is to make sure that we can make as many parts as possible at one time work on the same goal. This is what Geniuses do. Subconsciously or not, they are able to use their entire brain or many parts of it to work together to solve 1 problem.

What is a metaphor?

Here is a Shakespear/Wikipedia example…

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances; — (William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7)

In this example, “the world” is compared to a stage, the aim being to describe the world by taking well-known attributes from the stage. In this case, the world is the tenor and the stage is the vehicle. “Men and women” are a secondary tenor and “players” is the vehicle for this secondary tenor.

It may not be the easiest thing to come up with great metaphors, the more you practice, the better you will become, and the easier it will be to create new ones.

The best metaphors are vivid, memorable and emotional descriptions of the topic you are talking about. When you use these metaphors your trainees will learn better, and the information will stick easily.

There is no universal metaphor for any one subject. It is a trial and error type activity. Metaphors it is something you can begin to test on your spouse, or better yet, a child.

Coming up with metaphors requires that you drop your search for the perfect description and look for many simplified ideas. Here are a few ways you can improve your metaphors:

#1 – Isolate 1 small Idea or Issue within a topic, and build your metaphor from there.

#2 – Be Vivid. Create a stronger image in your mind to help describe your metaphor, “Showing belief in your product is important”–or–“Showing belief in your product is the ultimate fulcrum to massive and explosive success!” When creating your metaphors, visual impact is more important than perfect accuracy.

#3 – Quantity over Quality. Having 3-4 metaphors to describe a topic puts you in a far better position than one really good metaphor. Metaphors are vivid picture like definitions, your images in your head may not look like the images of other people, so do your best to come up with more than one metaphor for important points you are making.

#4 – The Child Rule. The best subject to try your metaphor out on is a child, if a young teenager can get your metaphor, you are good to go. Your goal with metaphors is to transform a complex idea, and re-frame it into an easy to understand idea. Boring, complex or difficult to understand metaphors can turn an imaginative journey into a lifeless plot. A child will not understand this, and neither will a great deal of your audience. Their mind does not want too work hard to figure out your metaphor. Your metaphor is supposed to help their mind, not confuse it.

Without metaphors, ideas, speeches, and trainings are simply dry and flow through people’s ears without a second thought.

So, how do you get really good at using Metaphors?

Practice, practice, practice…

Start creating metaphors today. Pick up a book or magazine, and start creating metaphors. Pick and chose the topic you would like to create a metaphor about, and take 5 minutes to think about how you could make a metaphor for it. If it does not happen quickly, find a new piece to create a metaphor about then write that topic down. Then take 5 minutes to figure out a metaphor for that new topic. If it does, or does not happen, find a new piece to create a metaphor about. Write the topic down, then take 5 minutes to figure out a metaphor for that topic.

Let me explain what happens in your mind while in this process by first using its a metaphor. Have you ever forgotten a movie name? Possibly even more common, have you ever forgotten a person’s name? Then while in the conversation with them, or even the next day, their name just pops into your head? Susan!! That is her name!

That is your subconscious mind at work. Since your initial thought, “What is her name?” your subconscious mind has been working on it without you even knowing.

In the exercise I described above to develop your metaphor skills, the goal is not necessarily to come up with the metaphor during the 5 minute processes.

The goal is to re-program your brain and your subconscious mind to think in metaphor language. It takes time, it takes repeated energy, and it works. If you do the exercise recommended above, throughout the day, or the next day, don’t be surprised if a metaphor or several metaphors regarding those topics you chose come up for you. It’s a lot of fun!

I am a qualified Certified Practising Accountant having passed my final exams way back in 1981. I actually can’t believe that was 37 years ago!! Anyway, I am now in my 60’s and I have been running my own business since May 1983. And before you ask, no, I have never regretted a moment of it!
Part of the membership requirements of my professional body now dictate that I spend quite a lot of time on “CPD” - continuing professional education (one of their better ideas) - and over the last two years I decided to study business growth and marketing.
I have learnt such a lot and that knowledge has radically changed my old “accountants” approach to business. It has made such a difference to the way I work and operate I feel that I just have to pass on this knowledge. It is simply too powerful to hold back!! - but I will try and do it in simple terms rather than expecting you to spend hours, as I had to, working through the difficult language that trainers seem to use to pass on their concepts.
I hope you find the blog a useful resource and interesting place to visit as the months pass. I will do my best to keep up the flow - but if there are any topics you would like me to cover, then please let me know.
Ray Stewart